The present invention relates to precursors of polymers containing isocyanurate units, also comprising hydroxyl, urethane, isocyanate or acrylic functional groups and combinations of these functional groups, and to processes for their manufacture. These polymer precursors of the present invention, which are called oligomers hereinafter and which contain hydroxyl functional groups, form starting compounds for the manufacture of oligomers of the invention containing urethane, isocyanate or acrylic functional groups and combinations of these functional groups. These oligomers are intended especially to be copolymerized under ultraviolet radiation in a reactive diluent and in the presence of an initiator, so as to form (co)polymers which have good hardness and good thermal resistance, and which can be employed in the field of coatings, inks and photopolymerizable adhesives.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,376 discloses a process for the preparation of an ethylenically unsaturated isocyanurate which consists in reacting an aromatic polyisocyanate with a monoalcohol containing a vinylidene group, chosen especially from hydroxypropyl (meth)acrylate, hydroxyethyl (meth)acrylate and their mixtures, to form a urethane containing a monoisocyanate, and a second stage consisting in reacting the said urethane with tri(2-hydroxyethyl) isocyanurate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,226 discloses a process for the manufacture of a compound which crosslinks under the effect of a high-energy radiation, containing an isocyanurate group, olefinic double bonds and, if appropriate, blocked or free isocyanate groups. This process comprises the reaction of a polyisocyanate containing an isocyanurate group with a compound containing at least one group which reacts with isocyanate groups and at least one olefinic double bond, such as a hydroxylated ester of acrylic or methacrylic acid with an aliphatic dialcohol which has a molecular mass of approximately 62-300, to form a urethane, the quantitative ratios of the reactants being chosen so that, for each free isocyanate group of the polyisocyanate, the reaction mixture contains approximately 0.9-1.5 hydroxyl groups of the other reactant.